Money talks: Greece blocks EU statement on China human rights

Greece has blocked a European Union statement at the United Nations criticising China’s human rights record, a decision EU diplomats said undermined efforts to confront Beijing’s crackdown on activists and dissidents.

The EU, which seeks to promote free speech and end capital punishment around the world, was due to make its statement last week at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, but failed to win the necessary agreement from all 28 EU states.

It marked the first time the EU had failed to make its statement at the U.N.’s top rights body, rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said.

A Greek foreign ministry official said Athens blocked the statement, calling it “unconstructive criticism of China” and said separate EU talks with China outside the U.N. were a better avenue for discussions.

An EU official confirmed the statement had been blocked.

Presented three times a year, the statement gives the EU a way to highlight abuses by states around the world on issues that other countries are unwilling to raise.

The impasse is the latest blow to the EU’s credentials as a defender of human rights, three diplomats said, and raises questions about the economically powerful EU’s “soft power” that relies on inspiring countries to follow its example by outlawing the death penalty and upholding press freedoms.

It also underscores the EU’s awkward ties with China, its second-largest trade partner, diplomats said.

Brussels has welcomed Beijing as an ally against U.S. President Donald Trump in the fight against climate change and trade protectionism. But as business ties grow, the bloc is struggling to speak out against a Chinese government crackdown on human rights lawyers and other activists since 2015.

China’s COSCO Shipping, owner of the world’s fourth-largest container fleet, took a 51 percent stake in Greece’s largest port last year.

Hungary, another large recipient of Chinese investment, has repeatedly blocked EU statements criticising China’s rights record under communist President Xi Jinping, diplomats said.

One EU diplomat expressed frustration that Greece’s decision to block the statement came at the same time the International Monetary Fund and EU governments agreed to release funds under Greece’s emergency financial bailout last week in Luxembourg.

“It was dishonourable, to say the least,” the diplomat told Reuters.

Money talks

China’s heavy investment in Piraeus port and other Greek infrastructure was met by the EU with raising eyebrows.

However, China has been pouring Greece a lifeline as part of its Belt and Road Initiative — Beijing’s plan to build an economic zone stretching all the way to Europe and Africa by land and sea, Nikkei says in a report. And this happens, when the IMF and the country’s European partners demand continuous austerity measures that keep Greece ins n economic vicious cycle.

China is pouring money into Greece’s infrastructure sector, viewing the cash-strapped country as a strategic gateway to Europe.

From the Greek government’s perspective, Chinese investment offers hope for keeping the economy afloat. The European Union, though, is increasingly alarmed at Beijing’s growing influence.

PS I suppose Greece decided to follow the same policies other countries follow towards China and Saudi Arabia.

4 comments

It is not at all like that Tsigantes. The Quislings of Athens do not dare (and they don’t even have the ability) to take action at EU level. Probably Merkel ordered them to block the statement so that she is not exposed. The 4th Reich has huge export interests in China, their largest market in 2016. With the US likely to limit imports, sustaining China as their export client is vital to their mercandilist strategy.

The EU, and especially the US, has no right to criticize the human rights issues of any state whatsoever. They should solve their own problems before trying to export their hypocritical ideas and concepts. All these “politically correct” statements are nothing but BS anyway.

Who wrote this? Are you a European? How can you be so dismissive and allude to bribery and corruption, and in the same article quote the dumb diplomat who calls Greece dishonourable for blocking the statement after the euro tyrants released funds as though they should have bought their obedience.

What a strange perspective to have to accuse China, one of the most stabalising powers, of human rights violations after all the misery and chaos they are responsible for. People are starting to see through all this hypocrisy.

Tsigantes, the government may not be for the people, but you should see there’s enormous, enormous potential for Greece and their relationship with China and the New Silk Road.